Bird Spikes?

[Clipper4730]

Hi y’all really getting fed up with the bird crap staining our cabin roof. We live in a downtown marina in Florida. The crows and robins eat little berries from the trees then crap them out including the seeds all over the boat. Was curious if anyone has had any success with bird spikes on the spreaders. Rarely see the birds on the shrouds or back stays. Ours is the tallest rig on the dock and the buggers always seem to congregate on our boat. Worth the time to install? Just checking.

Thanks in advance
Will

[chrisr]

in other parts of the world birds have been the bane of my life, and tried most everything

more effective and less obtrusive than spikes is to tie some thin fishing line about 2" above the spreader ie on to the cap shroud. you may need to pop rivet a small saddle on to the mast or more likely just run the line across the front of the mast, to the other side stay.

works a treat

cheers,

[psk125]

We have SS wire rigged a few inches above the spreaders. It holds up better than the fishing line, which seemed to need replacing too often. Spikes are on our radome, though you need to be sure they're well attached. There was an article recently about birds using spikes in their nest -- to keep other birds away.

[IRENE]

We use the plastic bird spikes. They are on the spreaders and on one radar and one bracket. Lexel was used to adhere them to the electronics, while nylon ties were used on the spreaders.

I intended to remove these when we began cruising full-time, but they really work and reduce our clean up from the birds. I thought there would be fewer birds outside of the marina and cruising, but so far that has not been the case.

We are in the boatyard at present, and I will be renewing the spreader bird spikes that have served well for 6 years.

Best Wishes

[Bellinghamster]

I had a problem with birds that ate purple berries and pooped staining purple all over the deck but I could never catch them in the act. I was thinking they must be fairly big birds due to the size of the mess. In desperation I strung 1/8" cord between the shrouds a few inches above the spreaders which seemed to help a bit... until the next berry season. One day I watched as a pile of little birds flew in a perched everywhere in the rigging - masthead, windex, backstay (seriously! A whole line of them down the backstay!) and forestay furler.
A rap on the mast or twang of the rigging sent them scattering. I was starting to consider making a "knocker" on a timer, but then moved marinas instead

At the new marina seagulls took to sitting on the top of my mizzen and painting my sailcover with fishy crap that stained everything an oily grayish brown... it was worse than the purple in terms of difficulty cleaning.

My solution: I 3-d printed a spike pad and mounted it to the top of the mizzen. No bird problems since! (knock on wood!)

[Tin Tin]

Originally Posted by chrisr

in other parts of the world birds have been the bane of my life, and tried most everything

more effective and less obtrusive than spikes is to tie some thin fishing line about 2" above the spreader ie on to the cap shroud. you may need to pop rivet a small saddle on to the mast or more likely just run the line across the front of the mast, to the other side stay.

works a treat

cheers,

We have done this on our upper verandah rail at home, works well, applying same principal to spreaders did not even occur to me until I read your post

[JPA Cate]

There are predator call recordings that you can set up to play, and the birds stay away.

As chrisr mentioned above, the fish line just above the spreader (for cockatoos and shags) works well, too.

Ann

[Kettlewell]

Yes, I have used the stainless steel spikes on the spreaders and I zip-tied one stip to the top of the mast too. My problem was cormorants and ospreys landing there and pooping on deck. Occasionally, I would still hear a cormorant crash land on the spreaders or mast and almost immediately take off again. I think smaller birds might be able to land amongst the spikes, but not sure.

[wrwakefield]

The spikes welded to the ends [tops when stowed] of the fishing boat outriggers are ineffective:




…And cluttered sailboat masts seem to make no difference…

[/IMG]


From casual observation, the thin, ~3” spike clusters seem to keep the birds from sitting on the night lamps in the harbors [photo appended below]

FWIW

Cheers, Bill

[Kettlewell]

I used ones like these and they deterred cormorants and ospreys: https://www.amazon.com/Bird-Blinder-...st_sto_dp&th=1

[shimari]

Originally Posted by Bellinghamster

..

A rap on the mast or twang of the rigging sent them scattering. I was starting to consider making a "knocker" on a timer, but then moved marinas instead

....

We were hit pretty badly this year compared to last year, and I'm seriously considering doing this as a winter project



Fishing line on the spreaders won't work completely with these birds!

[chrisr]

years back when we lived in a house, it was waterfront and the boat was on a mooring right outside

this was pretty nice except in our area we were plagued by birds called corella...quite a large parrot like bird...travel in big mobs of 50-100, and very very destructive. it wasn't fun watching 20 of more of these birds all over the boat, deliberately ripping and tearing at sails, wind instruments etc !

tried everything. eventually built a solar powered remote control siren system which hoisted up in the rigging. i could then sit on my balcony and push the button to get rid of the birds

was very effective...but the only problem someone had to be there to push the button

anyway, eventually the birds won...we sold the house, moved on to the boat and sailed away. now i can just race on deck and bang the rigging whenever i hear a 'chirp'. locals think i'm mad...which may be true

cheers,

[Hasbeen]

I ran a fleet of tourist boats on the Oz Great Barrier Reef. One of our cruises was a very dangerous outer reef cruise with coral viewing snorkeling & walking on the drying reef occasionally when the tide permitted.


We used a couple of high speed cats with capacity of 200 & 265 tourists respectively. It was dangerous as tourists would simply dive into snorkel, not realising the tidal current could be up to 5 knots at high spring tides.


We had a 60Ft coral viewing vessel shaped as a submarine built, & a couple of speed boats to retrieve tourists being swept away. I installed a 90 by 50Ft pontoon to act as a lifesaver facility, & that is when the bird problem started. Gannets are quite large birds, & some soon discovered this lovely dry perch 30 miles out to sea from any other perch, & told all their mates.


They didn't like the Sub much but loved the pontoon. They could cover it in an inch of droppings in a single night. We had a 2" fire pump & hose on the Sub, & it took 40 minutes with this to clean the pontoon before it smelt sweet enough to take tourists to it. I had to fly a skipper out by sea plane before each trip. Expensive.


I installed living quarters on the pontoon, & went through a series of skippers with or without companions who spent 5 nights a week out there. None lasted long until I found a couple of naturalists who only dresses for tourist time.


I gather the pontoon became a mecca for outer reef professional fishermen who evidentially rafted up over might there in considerable numbers. I was finally happy, with a clean facility. They could do what ever they liked with the 21 hours between tourist arrivals.


Anyone who has a bird problem should smell that facility when in heavy weather we had deserted the thing to the gannets for a week or more.